


Constellartory

by Heliantheia



Series: ex astris, felicitas [1]
Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: F/F, prompts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-28
Updated: 2018-09-05
Packaged: 2019-05-14 21:01:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14777174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heliantheia/pseuds/Heliantheia
Summary: a collection of sometimes-connected sometimes-not, decidedly-not-in-order ficlets all from Felicity Ryder's continuity.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> From the 50 kisses prompt: a kiss to shut them up. Vetra POV
> 
> (wanna talk

“Hey uh. Wanna come admire the view in here for a minute?”

There’s amusement, more than a little innuendo and something else in Felicity’s voice, and okay, so, Vetra’s spent more time gaping at the view over Meridian from the little balcony then anything else since they came up here. It’s a view she’s pretty sure she’s not going to get tired of any time soon.

The  _view_  inside is leaning against the wall with a grin, hands jammed in her pockets as she watches. It’s only the nervous jittering of one foot that betrays that she’s not as relaxed as she’s trying to appear, and when Vetra surreptitiously flicks a glance at the relevant corner of her visor, it shows her heart rate is skyrocketing.

“…everything okay?” Vetra asks, and Fliss’s smile falters.

“Yeah. Um,” she begins, and it’s remarkable how the  _we need to talk_  face is recognisable, no matter the species. There’s a feeling closing in around her carapace, one that feels remarkably like that time she took a full krogan headbutt to the chest, and that smug little voice that always sounds like her mother’s is saying _I told you so._ There was always that old joke, about relationships formed in intense situations, but she’d thought —

“So. I know it’s not a farm,” Fliss continues, twisting her hands together and peering at Vetra anxiously. “I know you wanted something out in one of the outposts — so do I — but um, I don’t think we’re done  _pathfinding_  yet? And I just thought that maybe we could try this first, you know, live together properly when we’re not on the Tempest?”

The sucker-punch feeling in her chest loosens so abruptly she actually staggers, and her mother’s voice is replaced with a mental image of Sid, just rolling her eyes in exasperation. Something of Vetra’s astonishment must show, because Fliss rambles on even faster.

“I mean, only if you want to? Nothing’s confirmed yet, so if you don’t — if it’s ‘no’ that’s okay, I know it’s probably  _early_  and I don’t even know if you — ” she inhales, and plunges on determinedly. “I know that everything’s changing and  _settling_  and I don’t even know if you feel the same way now that we’ve had a chance to stop and catch our breath and —”

She’s learned from experience that  _action_  is the only thing capable of stopping Fliss once she gets started like this. She’s also learned that the great advantage of species that use their mouths to kiss is that  _usually_  — Fliss has certainly  _tried_ to prove otherwise  _—_ kissing distracts them long enough to be able to get a word in edgewise, and well, Vetra’s not above using this to her advantage.  

As predicted, application of mouth-plates to pliable human lips has Fliss stuttering to a halt, breath catching as she looks up at Vetra from under her lashes.

“Back up a moment,” Vetra says slowly. “Are you — you’re asking if this could be  _home_? You and me, living here together?”

As soon as the words left her mouth she wishes she could take them back. Saying it out loud makes them  _real,_ makes the prospect of heartbreak all the worse. But she’d said them, back on that bluff on Kadara, and maybe, just maybe her luck will hold twice.

“Yes? I haven’t accepted anything yet, it’s just been offered —” she waves her hand at the empty,  _huge_ , rooms around them. “— So we don’t have to take it if that’s not what you want, or if it’s too fast for you, but yeah. Yeah, I really want live here. With you. Make it home, you know?”

Her face goes from hopeful to pained uncertainty when Vetra’s subharmonics take charge all on their own and make some embarrassing trilling  _keen._

“Vee, I — “

The great thing about applying kisses with a brow, like a  _civilised_  species is that it leaves the vocal cords free to put all the things that can’t be said in words, into a low trilling hum. Fliss apparently understands just fine, because she relaxes, returning the press with a relieved huff of her own.

“Just — one condition,” Vetra adds after a few minutes, and her mandibles splay out in a grin of her own when Fliss leans back, giving her an inquiring look. “We’re leaving the pjack on the Tempest,”


	2. Prompt - Stay With Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr Prompt - stay with me. 
> 
> Or, Vetra challenges a dietary intolerance, and loses, miserably.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is all self indulgent nonsense, and I have literally no shame. Hit me up with some more ridiculous prompts over at fade-touched-eezo.tumblr.com

   For a spiky, nearly seven-foot tall woman, Vetra Nyx could be remarkably elusive. Fliss had been all over Podromos searching — and the next joker to make a crack about Pathfinding was going to be introduced to her _pathfist_ — and hadn’t turned up so much as a talon print. It was only a nudge from SAM that had her taking the search back to the Tempest and her quarters.

   Her apparently empty quarters.

   Not as empty as they had been; there was plenty of evidence that Vetra had been there. She was still so skittish about ‘ _overstaying her welcome_ ’ or however she’d put it when Fliss had coaxed the truth out of her, that it was nice to see signs she was finally making herself at home. A jacket draped over a chair, the little pile of fancy dextro ration wrappers on the table and — and a suspiciously Vetra-shaped lump under the bedcovers.

   It was the pathetic groan it gave, when Fliss gave it an experimental prod, that alerted her to the notion that it might actually be Vetra.

   A little closer examination revealed a familiar silver-grey fringe sticking out from under the blankets, and a low unhappy rumble emanating from somewhere in the middle of the lump. She hooked a finger under the blanket and pulled it up to peer underneath.

   “Uh, Vee? Not that I’m complaining, not at all, but what are you doing?”

   Vetra shot her a half-hearted glare before the blanket was firmly yanked back down and the definitely-Vetra lump culled into an even tighter ball.  
“I’m _dying_ ,” was her muffled declaration from the depths. It was a somewhat alarming declaration to be sure, and Fliss’s eyebrow’s hit their highest extent.

   “…okay? I’m gonna need some clarification here babe,”

   When she got no answer, she tugged back the blanket again to get a better look at her apparently dying girlfriend.

   No blood. No obvious injury. And the brief glimpse of a rude gesture and a thoroughly unhappy turian clutching a heatpack to her belly she got before the blanket was jerked back again was enough to set her mind at ease. Mostly, anyway.

   “Can’t I just die in peace?”  
   “You’re awfully dramatic for someone on their last legs,” Fliss retorted. Satisfied that death wasn’t _actually_ imminent, she rolled her eyes at the grumble of subharmonics and cast a suspicious eye at the wrappers by the bed.

   “I think I just found the cause of death,” she quipped after a quick scan of the ingredients list confirmed her hunch. “I seem to recall you being _hilariously_ allergic to these?”

   The blankets shifted and Vetra peered suspiciously out at her.  
   “Who told you that?”  
   “Sid. I found a box of these I was gonna give you and she mentioned that it would be a _bad_ idea. I see her point.”

   That, apparently was all it took to get Vetra out of the blankets once and for all.  
   “That little varren!” she said indignantly. “I knew she was holding out on me! A whole box?”  
   “She very kindly offered to _dispose_ of them for me,” Fliss said, laughing at the disgruntled noise Vetra made at that.  
   “You know what I could have traded for those?”  
   “A miserable night in the bathroom?” she snickered. “Don’t give me that look. I know the story,”

   Vetra’s glower was impressive, but she didn’t try and refute it.  
   “Can I get you anything, or shall I just let you die in peace?”  
   The glare turned sheepish, and she held out the heatpack.  
   “…it’s gone cold, could you — ?”

   It still felt plenty warm to Fliss, but then, she didn’t have plates to dull the heat.  
   “…and some water? Please?” Vetra called after her, and Fliss waved.

   When she returned, painfully-hot heatpack and water in hand, Vetra had vanished. Fliss shook her head, straightening the blankets and tucking the heatpack under them, wandering around and tidying while she waited.

   She was halfway through sending a message to Addison when the door slid open and Vetra slunk back to the bed. She flopped down with a dramatic groan, curling back up against the warm and looked up at Fliss.  
   “Why don’t things you love love you back?” she whined, rolling onto her side when Fliss came to perch beside her.  
   “I love you. I love you back,”  
   “No you don’t. You think my pain is funny,”  
    Fliss giggled. “Only the dramatics, love,” she said, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “And maybe the whole self-inflicted bit,”  
   “So mean,” Vetra grumbled, yanking up the blanket with a huff. “ _Mean_.”  
   “How will I ever make it up to you?”

   Vetra peered at her from under half-lowered lids.  
   “You could stay? Keep me company until I die?”  
   And then, because it was Vetra —  
   “I mean, if you’re not — if you haven’t got something important —”  
   “Get over,” Fliss said with a mock-martyred sigh. “Who am I to refuse the last request of a dying woman?”  
   She slid in beside her and smiled when Vetra immediately cuddled up to her, resting her head on her chest.

   “Sorry for just inviting myself in here,” she said a few minutes later. “I just. You know. Proximity.”  
   “My close-to-the-bathroom, stupidly large room is your close-to-the-bathroom room,” Fliss said. “You know you’re always welcome,”  
    She rested a datapad against the top of Vetra’s head with the intention of finishing that email to Addison, but three words in and Vetra twisted around to stare at her reproachfully.

   “Are you working? No working when your girlfriend is dying.”  
   “You know, for a doomed woman, you’re kind of bossy,” Fliss muttered, shutting down the file anyway and meeting her gaze. “Am I allowed to read instead?”  
   Vetra considered for a minute.   
   “Is it work reading? No work reading. Only if it’s fun reading,”  
   “ _Fiiiine_.”

   They sat in contented silence for a few minutes before Vetra poked her again.  
   “What are you reading?” she asked, hitching her heatpack a little higher. Fliss blushed.  
   “It’s silly,” she said, setting it down again when Vetra looked up at her.  
   “Come on,”  
   “It’s an old kids book,” she admitted reluctantly. “There’s a whole series of them. Finn used to — Finn loves them. Always was on my ass about reading them but — “

   She shrugged, swallowing the sudden lump in her throat.  
   “Figured I’d read them while he was — out. Just to annoy him. They’re actually pretty good,”

   She stopped, embarrassed at herself, and Vetra gently poked her again.  
   “…Read it to me?” she asked, shifting to get comfortable again, mandibles flared in a wry grin as she added; “You know. Keep my mind of my imminent demise and all,”

   Fliss snorted, but flicked back to find the beginning of the first book.  
   “We keeping this metaphor going all night?”  
   “…is it upsetting you?”  
   “It’s not,”  
   “Then yes. Yes we are,”  
   “God you’re a dork,” Fliss muttered, pressing another kiss to her girlfriend’s head. “You’re lucky I love you,”

   She’s pretty sure Vetra just wanted to listen to the vibrations her voice made, rather than actually listen to the book. It was soothing, or so Vetra had claimed, when she’d been woken in the dead of the night by a turian snuggling close and asking her to talk, just to talk about anything. Either way, Fliss was happy to oblige.

  “Remind me to get Liam to hunt down the first bunch of films they made,” she said idly, after a chapter or so. “Finn says they’re bad. Like, drinking game bad. Could be fun.”  
   Vetra made a sleepy hum of assent, and she grinned, unable to resist.  
   “I’m definitely in charge of snacks though,”

   It was totally worth the indignant pinch.

**Author's Note:**

> Wanna talk about these big gay dorks? Come hit me up over at fade-touched-eezo on tumblr!


End file.
